How to Read and Understand the Psalms by Bruce Waltke and Fred Zaspel

How to Read and Understand the Psalms (Crossway, 2023). 

In How to Read and Understand the Psalms, Bruce Waltke and Fred Zaspel present a wide-ranging guide for interpreting the book of Psalms. Zaspel wrote this volume by excerpting, revising, and otherwise drawing upon Waltke's extensive lectures, sermons, and writing on the psalms. The result is a well-structured collection of studies and insights that will help readers make their way through one of the most cherished sections of the Bible.

In the content of the book, Waltke and Zaspel addresses hermeneutical approaches, including the historical and liturgical contexts of the Psalms, aspects of Hebrew poetry, and the various literary categories found within the Psalter, such as psalms of praise, lament, and thanksgiving. They also have extended discussion of the messianic nature of specific royal psalms and the shape of the Psalter as a whole (see esp. chaps 4, 15, and Appendix 2). In their approach to reading, Waltke and Zaspel stress the importance of considering an individual psalm's original setting, literary features, placement in the larger context of the psalter, and connection to Davidic kingship and their ultimate interpretation within a Christological framework.

In the genre sections, they offer methods for analyzing the imagery and parallelism characteristic of Hebrew poetry. Beyond scholarly analysis, the book also aims to help readers apply the Psalms to their own lives, aiming for both intellectual comprehension and devotional use. For many of the textual and theological categories (e.g., a literary device like repetition or a theological concept like righteousness), they give a theoretical overview but also include extended verse-by-verse exposition. These extended treatments are relatively easy to find in the book (which will make this a useful resource for students and preachers to consult).

The book of Psalms is worth reading and re-reading many times in the scope of a teaching ministry or devotional life. Waltke and Zaspel's work here is a helpful contribution to the pool or resources available for this task. 

Some Notes:

• See details of this commentary and future plans for the series. Cf. my goodreads & reviews of volumes in the ESV Commentary series; Thanks to Crossway for this review copy.